in php (for example) it's frequently nice to get the structure of a table without any data, ie, pull a single row with each attribute's value is null. I use the query (dual is a table of one row ala Oracle):
select m.* from dual left join mytable m on( false ); this works every time, but if mytable is big, then takes a long time. needed to rewrite the query to: select m.* from dual left join (select * from mytable limit 1) m on( false ); this works as it should - pulls empty row but fast. it seems to me that a full table scan should not be necessary if the join condition is false. __________________________________ Start your day with Yahoo! - Make it your home page! http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 1: if posting/reading through Usenet, please send an appropriate subscribe-nomail command to [EMAIL PROTECTED] so that your message can get through to the mailing list cleanly